In a strange article posted on CoinDesk yesterday, Daniel Cawrey asked the CoinDesk audience if Bitcoin could end up running into the same problems as Napster, the pioneering P2P file sharing service created by Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning. While this may seem like a legitimate question to some, the reality is that Bitcoin and Napster […]

Huobi, one of China’s largest Bitcoin exchanges revealed Thursday morning that it had lost 920 BTC and 8,100 LTC on Wednesday. The value of the lost funds stood at $411,000 as on Thursday morning. In a statement posted on its Weibo account, the company revealed that one of its customer service representatives had sent the money […]

Huobi, one of China’s largest Bitcoin exchanges revealed Thursday morning that it had lost 920 BTC and 8,100 LTC on Wednesday. The value of the lost funds stood at $411,000 as on Thursday morning. In a statement posted on its Weibo account, the company revealed that one of its customer service representatives had sent the money […]

In the previous article, Scottish Independence, we highlighted Scotland’s referendum for independence and a few notes about what it may mean. On Thursday the 18th of September, 2014, the Scottish people voted No to independence, choosing to remain within the union of the United Kingdom. According to gov.uk the majority vote won with a count of 55.3% to 44.7%. A significant factor about the voting turnout was the sheer number of people who did vote, 84.5% of the eligible voters. With the current dissolution with politics within the United Kingdom and globally, this was an astounding turnout. Another point to note would be the ratios of the voters: as can be seen via the research thanks to the Mirror, the majority of Yes voters […]

TechCrunch columnist Jon Evans thinks Bitcoin technology can fix the Internet and restructure it on a fundamental level. “The blockchain technology that underlies Bitcoin is a major technical breakthrough that could, in time, revolutionize both the Internet and the financial industry as we know them,” writes Evans on TechCrunch, “and the first steps of that […]

In case you missed last week’s exciting panel discussion held at prestigious Premier Studios in New York, look no further. Bitcoin Magazine had the camera rolling and caught the whole thing. Our very own Tatiana Moroz was featured on the panel and was able to interview several other panel members at the event. Panelists consisted of the face of Tatianacoin, Tatiana Moroz; music industry icon Phil Quartararo; CFO and Co-Founder of Ribbit.me Gregory Simon; and was moderated by Rik Willard of MintCombine. With the help of BitPay, Premier Studios has become the first recording studio in the world to accept bitcoin, on a mission toward revolutionizing the music industry. Exploring the possibilities of how digital currency will change the ways […]

Some people say money is the root of all evil. Others say its a necessary evil. Most can agree that it’s an important human innovation. But it hasn’t been widely acknowledged that the human desire for money can actually be used to peer into the future. A Prediction Market (PM) is a place where people can bet on the outcome of an event. If they guess correctly, they win money. If they guess incorrectly, they lose money. People care about their money, so the market price of an event gives us a good answer to the question “Will this outcome happen or not?” It’s not magic. It’s the economics version of the “wisdom of the crowd”. Intrade became the first […]

The company is running out of cash after losing money for nine straight quarters.

For decades, Sears was ubiquitous.

But industry analyst Robin Lewis writes that Sears made a few crucial mistakes that ran business into the ground.

Sears' unraveling started back in the late 1970s and unfolded over three decades, according to Lewis.

Here are the mistakes that led to business declining.

1. Losing focus of the core business.

By 1980, Sears had saturated the marketplace with stores in nearly every U.S. city. Instead of focusing on the quality of product in stores, the company began investing in ventures not directly related to retail. The company used profits from the retail business to invest in real estate, finance, and an auto business.

"This did not have to be fatal; however, it actually starved those resources (capital and management ) from the retail business, leaving it unable to respond and adapt to the needs of the evolving consumer and marketplace," Lewis writes.

2. Becoming too bureaucratic.

As Sears grew, the company created many different divisions. This was detrimental because it left Sears unable to react to changing consumer tastes.

Having too many managers is a frequent mistake for business, Lewis writes.

"Sears’s culture became characterized by infighting and significant strategic redirects," Lewis says. "This cultural sclerosis is a disease that cripples many large, older companies in need of change for survival."

3. Ignoring the competition.

Sears felt invincible, and didn't respond to competitors like Wal-Mart, TJ Maxx, and JCPenney, according to the book The New Rules Of Retail co-authored by Lewis and Michael Dart.

Between 1998 and 2010, the number of competitors within a 15-minute drive from any Sears grew from 1,400 to 4,300 stores, according to Lewis.

Sears could have fended off competitors by altering its strategy. Instead, the company became complacent, leading to a massive loss of market share.

Today, the department store "just doesn’t have the same resonance, it doesn’t have the same level of importance to people as it had 30 years ago," Matt McGinley, managing director at International Strategy & Investment Group, told Bloomberg News.

Danish company Coinify received a multi-million investment by SEED Capital, the largest early stage technology oriented venture fund in Denmark, and plans to become Europe’s leading player in the digital currency market. According to their website, Coinify “makes it simple for anyone to become a part of the ever-growing Bitcoin ecosystem.” They offer merchant accounts […]

The Bitcoin price is the monetary cost of a bitcoin. The term “price”, as used here, is not to be confused with “value“ which is a perceived regard for Bitcoin’s benefits and usefulness. The Bitcoin price is expressed as an exchange rate in relation to another currency. So, for example, the Bitcoin-to-Dollar exchange rate may […]

The Bitcoin price is approaching the lower $400s again after hitting $450 following Tuesday’s PayPal announcement. A familiar pattern is re-emerging in the chart, and direction remains sideways. Bitcoin Price Is Going… East Trade has pulled the Bitcoin price back to the midway point between the lower orange support and the light blue dashed trendline […]

National Vulnerability Database has recently warned against a major vulnerability in GNU Bourne Again Shell (Bash). GNU Bash is the command-line shell used in many operating systems based on Linux and Unix. A Red Hat security advisory said: “This issue is especially dangerous as there are many possible ways Bash can be called by an […]

Today marks a special day: The first day that newcomer international Bitcoin exchange OKCoin.com has had a higher daily Bitcoin volume than all other exchanges. In the last 24 hours, OKCoin.com has transacted nearly 16,000 BTC, compared with Bitstamp’s ~14,700 BTC and Bitfinex’s ~15,100 BTC. OKCoin.com is the international arm of OKCoin; OKCoin also runs […]

Bitcoin seems set to revolutionize the world of online gambling. A new infographic explains why and how to casino operators. There has always been gambling, and there will always be gambling. I am a firm believer in everyone’s right to spend their money as they like. I don’t gamble, and I don’t understand the urge to […]

Businesses love accepting Bitcoin. You have heard it on the news, read it on Reddit, and kept up with the latest market developments here at CryptoCoinsNews.com. The mainstream is starting to come around to Bitcoin, and the more they hear about Bitcoin, they more they accept Bitcoin as a smarter way to pay. Particularly for […]